


Cold summer

by blurrybutter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Daily life with flashbacks, Harry's POV, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, OOC, Scorpius is so lovely that I just want to hug him tightly, Slice of Life, not too sad actually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:14:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26440219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blurrybutter/pseuds/blurrybutter
Summary: About Scorpius and Harry's first summer without their dear Draco.
Relationships: Blaise Zabini/Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy/Astoria Greengrass, Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley/Hermione Granger
Comments: 10
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

That was Scorpius' first day at a Muggle elementary school.

"I'm scared" He said worriedly, "I've never met Muggles before. Is it difficult to make friends with them?"

Harry laughed.

"It's okay, Muggles are not too different from us. Come on, let's go now."

Scorpius obediently nodded. He grabbed Harry's hand and then the two walked out of the house. The school as well as the train station were quite close, so instead of buying a Muggle car, they travelled on foot.

That was a sunny day with hardly any cloud to be seen on the sky. Although it was quite early in the morning, a dazzling yellow color had already covered the whole village. Holding a green umbrella tightly in his hand, Scorpius cheerfully sang as he constantly twirled the handle.

_Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. ___

_If you ever feel fear, ___

_Just remember apples are blooming out there ... ___

"What song was that?" Harry asked. 

______"My mom used to sing me that song before bedtime. I was too scared to sleep alone, so I think mom was trying to relieve me."_ _ _ _ _ _

______"But it's July already. There are no apple blossoms left."_ _ _ _ _ _

______"Ah, you're right..."_ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius stayed silent for a while. It was until they turned into an alley that he suddenly spoke out loud._ _ _ _ _ _

______"So we can just fix it!"_ _ _ _ _ _

______"Fix?"_ _ _ _ _ _

______"Yeah. The new lyric would be 'Just remember that apples are fruiting out there'."___ _ _ _

"Sounds good!" 

Scorpius smiled brightly at Harry's compliment.

"My dad loves apples. When I meet him, I will sing him this song. He would definitely feel much stronger."

When they finally reached the school gate, Scorpius gasped a big gulp of air and announced firmly.

"I'm not scared any longer" The little boy let go of Harry's hand, "I'm going on my own. See you later!"

"Yeah, have a good day!", replied Harry.

He waved at Scorpius until he had disappeared from his sight. Walking deliberately toward the train station, Harry hummed lowly.

_Don't be afraid, don't be afraid._

_If you ever feel fear,_

_Just remember apples are fruiting out there..._

"Don't worry", Harry whispered to himself.

"You know, your dad is a persistent guy."

His steps felt lighter as he sang to the song. Harry stretched his arms, ready for a new day at work.


	2. Chapter 2

"Good morning, Harry!"

Ron and Hermione came around one Sunday morning. Since Harry didn't use to get up early in the morning, he opened the door with an unkempt appearance. The two friends, on seeing their Head Auror wearing pyjamas and sleepily ruffled his hair, began to laugh.

"Hey, you two came just to laugh at me?"

"No, we came to visit you." Hermione smilingly lifted up a box, "Look, this is Maggot Chocolate cake, George's new recipe! Oh, I actually don't know if you really want to try some... "

"Of course I want to." He nodded, although he didn't have a good feeling about George's dishes, "Scorpius is still sleeping, we stayed up all night watching Muggle cartoons. Come in, I'll go make coffee. "

Ron and Hermione were led to a small living room. The room was painted green and silver, but still looked cozy. Hermione's attention was immediately drawn to a picture hung on the wall, she stood still, studied the drawing carefully. Ron whispered to Harry:

"This room fits Scor perfectly. You must have been busy decorating it."

"I just didn't want Scor to feel uncomfortable." Harry laughed.

Before moving to this house, he was worried that Scorpius would not get used to Muggle life. Strange neighbors, never-before-seen furnishings, and a completely different house - everything appeared unfamiliar to the little pure-blooded wizard. However, Scorpius is an obedient child. He got used to living here without a single complaint.

Harry sang Scorpius' praises to his friend when they were making coffee in the kitchen. Ron widened his eyes admiringly at every single word, and then when the story was over, he sighed.

"I wish Rose were Scor. You know, she detests any Muggle stuff I bring home. She would never talk to me until I throw them away."

"It's because you don't know how to teach her properly." Harry stuck out his tongue teasingly.

"Hey, you mean I'm not a good father?"

That morning, Harry had a nice tea with Ron and Hermione. They had all grown older, but the warm atmosphere among the old trio had never changed.

"This maggot cake is surprisingly delicious." Hermione cheerfully said while chomping the chocolate maggots.

"Right, right," agreed Ron, even though he was so disgusted that his face turned pale, "Harry, will you come visit our family next week? Everyone misses you."

He laughed.

"Sure."

The two friends stayed for lunch. Hardly had they finished cooking when Scorpius walked into the kitchen, hair neatly combed and eyes opened wide awake. Harry suddenly felt ashamed - even a child was more well-mannered than him.

"Good morning, Mr and Mrs Weasley." The little boy politely bowed.

"Good morning, my dear." Hermione smiled gently. "Come here, we're going to have lunch. Do you want some milk first?"

"No thanks, I'll have this instead." Scorpius opened the fridge, pulled out a box of apple juice, "It tastes much better than milk."

He really is a carbon copy of Malfoy, said Ron when Harry saw him and his wife off at the front gate.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Ron sneaked a glance at him, his expression both worried and confused, "I mean... Draco Malfoy. That's the problem."

"You're just thinking too much." Harry shrugged his shoulders, "I'm alright, don't worry."

"I hope so" Ron let out a breath of relief, "Well, see you tomorrow at work. We have to go home before George teaches Rose some weird tricks."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

He lingered at the gate, watching Ron and Hermione walking away hand in hand. From afar twilight could already be seen, the technicolor sunset sky shone calmly like a blooming rose. A warm midsummer breeze blew from the West, enveloped Harry in an unnamed feeling.

_He really is a carbon copy of Malfoy._

Harry suddenly thought about the Draco of many years ago.

Bad-tempered, selfish, arrogant. Completely different from his son's temperate personality, but there was still a Draco there each time Harry looked at Scorpius.

"Harry ..."

A low voice cut in on Harry's train of thought. He turned around and found out that was Scorpius who called him.

"Are you okay?"

Harry silently smiled. Everyone was worried about him.

"I'm okay."

"You look so sad."

_Yeah, since I'm thinking of your father._

"I'm okay, really. Come on, why don't you go have a bath? Dinner will be ready as soon as you're clean and neat! "  



	3. Chapter 3

Harry realized his true feelings for Draco in his fifteenth summer.

Everything started in a blazing hot noon of mid-August. Warm wind was purring softly in the leaves, white clouds were slowly drifting across the sky, and Draco was sinking to the bottom of an endless ocean. Of course, it was just Harry's imagination when he found Draco sitting under a hawthorne tree, hands resting on his thighs and eyes blankly staring at nowhere. The moment Harry saw the other's whole body engulfed in dazzling sunlight, his heart skipped a beat.

Harry never understood why he could fall for his enemy so easily. Just a few minutes earlier, Harry had still put Draco Malfoy on the top of his blacklist. Yet a moment later, he fell in love with him.

"Maybe, your feeling is just pity."

Hermione explained when Harry asked for her advice.

Compassion?

Well, maybe she was right.

Perhaps he felt pity for Draco since his family forced him to follow Death Eaters. Nothing more, nothing less.

But in another afternoon, when the wind felt cooler and the sunlight was paler, Harry got lost in the sight of Draco once again.

At the moment Harry bumped into him, Draco was crying. He stood by the sparkling lake, buried his face in his hands and cried like a child. For the first time he found Draco so fragile that he could be shattered into pieces just by a touch. And also for the first time, his heart sag when he saw a vast blue summer sky pressing against the other's slender shoulders.

"Don't you feel lonely?"

Asked Harry as he and Draco were putting on Quidditch uniforms.

"What the heck are you asking?" Draco frowned.

"I mean, you've been alone lately."

Draco raised one corner of his lips, hand twirling the broom handle.

"It's nothing."

In a very short second, their eyes met. In those ash-gray eyes of Draco's, he saw an immense sky of loneliness and misery.

It suddenly dawned on him that his feelings weren't merely pity anymore. Or, perhaps, they had never been compassion.

_Harry James Potter had truly fallen for Draco Lucius Malfoy. In their eternal fifteenth summer._


	4. Chapter 4

"Harry" 

Scorpius turned up behind Harry's door, timidly speaking.

"What's wrong, Scor?"

"Tomorrow ... can I invite one of my friends to our house?"

"Oh, of course you can" Harry laughed, "Come here, tell me a little bit about your friend."

Scorpius let out a sigh of relief. The boy happily jumped onto Harry's lap and began to talk.

"His name is Albus, Albus Potter. You see, his last name is the same as yours, that's why I'm impressed by him at the first sight! Albus is very nice to me, he introduced me to the others in our class and showed me around the school too. We are very close indeed! "

The next morning, a young boy with curly brown hair and green eyes came around. Scorpius dashed to the door with a lit-up face as he heard the knock. He ran so fast that Harry couldn't even catch up.

"Al, good morning!"

"Good morning Scor!" The boy smiled brightly in return, wrapping his arms around Scorpius, "Glad to see you today! Ah, is he uncle Harry you told me about?"

"Bingo! Harry, this is Albus."

"Hello, Albus." Harry looked at the boy in a gentle way, "Please make yourself at home."

"Good morning, Mr. Harry. Scor may told you that I'm totally a nuisance, but I swear I won't annoy you today!"

"I really doubt that." Scorpius pretended to stare, and the two boys began to chuckle.

Scorpius and his new friend seemed to have much fun together. Despite staying all the morning in the closed reading room, Harry could still hear their non-stop laughter from upstairs. Only when the sun had hung high on the sky did they ran downstairs for lunch, both sweating and gasping.

"What did you two do this morning?", asked Harry as he took pasta onto the plates.

"We've just... built a fort." Scorpius breathlessly replied, "It's a bit ... tiring, but it looks great!"

Harry and the two boys went upstairs to have a look at the fort after lunch. The fort looked okay indeed, and the decorations were pretty lovely too. Albus and Scorpius invited him to come in and they had a nice tea there. Albus was a little over-talkative boy, but he made Scorpius happy. Harry couldn't ask for anything more.

Scorpius and Albus stayed inside their new home all that afternoon. Harry said he couldn't play with them for he had some work to do, but he still went upstairs several times to see what the two boys were doing. Sometimes he saw a ray of white light lit up the whole fort, sometimes he heard the two singing cheerfully. The fourth time he went upstairs, they were whispering to each other with a pretty serious voice. 

"What if we stay here together for the rest of our lives?" asked Scorpius.

"Nice idea and I'm happy to do so," replied Albus, "but Harry would be worried about you and so do my parents. We have to wait until we grow up."

"You're right."

There was a heavy feeling in Harry's chest when he heard the conversation. He turned back to the living room and sat by the large glass window until the sun began to set.

Unlike wizarding world, where the roads were still busy even when the day ended, this Muggle village was pretty quiet. Only the echoes of rustling leaves and the birds from afar could be heard. Harry sat still, listening to every sighs of the slowly fading life.

_"What if we hide in this cloak of invisibility until the war is over?"_

_"Sounds great Potter, but if we did that, my parents would be killed."_

"The children seem much more carefree than us before, don't they?"

Harry thought to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

One day, Scorpius came home with mud covered his whole body.

"What happened?" Harry looked at the little boy in awe. Responding to him was just a shy smile.

"I just fell off the ground during the match... Don't worry."

_Don't worry _. Even his catchphrase resembled his father's.__

__"But Scor, I don't want a dirt goblin to live in my house. Why don't we have a bath now?"_ _

__Scorpius happily nodded and ran upstairs to grab his clothes. Putting his book off, Harry got into the bathroom, turned on the tap and waited for the hot water to fill the tub while listening to its gurgle - which was, in some ways, like a calming melody. A few minutes later, Scor entered the room with a towel and a small mint-green soap on his hand._ _

__"Al gave me this" He explained, "Throw it into the tub, and the water will sizzle like soda."_ _

__"Then let's try it out!"_ _

__It had been a while since Harry last bathed a kid. When he was living with the Dursleys, he had to help bathe Dudley's cousins each time they stayed for the night. But those naughty, sassy kids were a far cry from a silent, soft Scorpius - rather than annoying him, taking care of Scorpius made him feel pretty comfortable._ _

__"This reminds me of mommy. When I was little, she always bathed me, though I constantly resisted on doing everything myself" Scorpius squeezed his eyes shut, softly saying._ _

__"So" Harry asked, half expecting to receive a yes, "can I be your parent now?"_ _

__The little boy just smiled quietly and Harry knew what he meant. He continued washing Scorpius's hair, but the atmosphere became weirdly awkward._ _

__"Harry, could you tell me about father when you two was young?"_ _

__Fortunately, Scorpius suddenly broke the silence._ _

__"Your father?"_ _

__"Yeah, father Draco when he was a student." He threw the bath bomb into the tub, "You two were irreconcilable enemies, right?"_ _

__"Uhm..."_ _

__The soap sinked to the bottom of the tub and bubbles started to appear on the water surface as it gradually dissolved._ _

__"I, uhm, really admire him."_ _

___Draco Malfoy was the strongest man in the world. ____ _

____"At first I hated Draco" Harry replied slowly, "But then I found him truly amazing. Alone on his own, Draco fought for everything he wanted to protect. That's how you were born."_ _ _ _

____A serene smile appeared on Scorpius's lips as if nice memories were returning back to him._ _ _ _

____"Yes. He loved mommy and me so much."_ _ _ _

____Harry grinned in return and took the little boy into the tub. The fizzing water made him feel like he was sitting in a boiling pot, but Scorpius had a rather soft look on his face._ _ _ _

____"This smells nice, right?"_ _ _ _

____Scorpius slowly sank, eyes closed._ _ _ _

____"Mm. Smells like green apple."_ _ _ _

_____The scent of Draco. ____ _ _ _

______"Harry."_ _ _ _ _ _

______He rose out of the water and leaned against the tub. Warm sunbeams shone through the window, painted a faint blush on his rosy cheeks._ _ _ _ _ _

______Tears suddenly built up in Scorpius's grey eyes._ _ _ _ _ _

______"I miss father."_ _ _ _ _ _

______The steam rose from the water surface with a faint scent of green apple, coiled around the two._ _ _ _ _ _

______"I miss him too."_ _ _ _ _ _

______Harry ruffled Scorpius's hair, gently smiling._ _ _ _ _ _

______"So, two of us will live our happiest so that in heaven Draco would not have to worry. Okay?"_ _ _ _ _ _

______Scorpius nodded silently. He climbed onto Harry's lap, and sat still until the bubbles has completely disappeared._ _ _ _ _ _


End file.
